Forget the Dos Equis guy. Guitar legend Dick Dale is the real-life most interesting man in the world. Listed as one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by Rolling Stone, the "King of the Surf Guitar" has inspired work by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, flies planes from his Skyranch in Twentynine Palms, raised tigers, worked as an architect, practices martial arts and influenced rockers like Jimi Hendrix. At 75, he's still out there touring hard while battling cancer.

The electric-guitar pioneer who was the first to crank amps as loud as they could go with his reverb-heavy, percussive strumming on fat strings will take the stage at the Winema Theater in Scotia on Sunday evening.

"I'm touring out of necessity," Dale said on the phone while lying in bed at his Skyranch, trying to reserve his energy after years of battling renal failure, cancer, diabetes, radiation, chemotherapy and the like. "To pay the medical bills. But I walk down a different road. I'm trying to be an inspiration to those who are also sick."

When picking up the most recent edition of Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and leafing through to his section, one can't help but be impressed by the mention that Fender founder Leo Fender once attempted to create an amp that wouldn't be destroyed by Dale's volumes.

"We went through at least 50 amplifiers that caught on fire," Dale said of he and Fender's attempts in the 1950s to manufacture an amp capable of reaching previously unattained volumes. "Leo was like a second father to me. I wanted my guitar to sound like Gene Krupa's drums. Krupa was the first man who made drums a solo instrument in the big band era. (Fender) had a favorite saying: 'If it can withstand the barrage of punishment from Dick Dale, then it is fit for the human consumption.' Leo called (the amp he made for me) the Showman because he used to call me a showman, the way I would jump all over the stage. When I plugged my Stratocaster (guitar) into that Showman it was as loud as a F-16 fighter jet."

Those crushing volumes also caused many to describe Dale as the "Father of Heavy Metal," coupled with what he did with reverb, amp-volumes, fast scales and percussive-strumming. On top of wanting his guitar to thump like the beat of a drum and wanting to mimic the swirling sounds he'd hear while surfing in Southern California, it was raising lions, tigers, mountain lions, elephants and other animals that also influenced his riffs.

"I raised over 40 species of animals, so they wouldn't be killed by poachers," Dale said. "I was imitating the sounds my lions and tigers were making. All that big sliding stuff, the big big roars. I'd take it from the neck down."

The surf-rocker then was able to share his innovative chops with none other than Jimi Hendrix when the late legend was touring with Little Richard in the 1960s. Back then, when Dale had a possibly terminal case of colon cancer, Hendrix encouragingly said the death of Dale would mark the end of the surf-rock genre.

Late guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan learned off of Dale's early records and together the two received a Grammy Award nomination in 1988 for their cover of The Chantay's song "Pipeline."

In 2000 Dick Dale was inducted into the White House Congressional Hall of Records by California Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis.

While he was ecstatic to be inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville in 2009, after being snubbed for so many years, now Dale says has no interest in being inducted into the "other one" -- the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Ohio.

"The regular Hall of Fame is for people who sold a 100 million records," Dale said. "I've played there and they have my records, but it's a political thing. And based off of how many trips you've taken to Hawaii."

On the up side, Dale's role as an inspiration behind filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" means more to many than some award.

"I was in concert when Quentin Tarantino came up to my bass player and gave him a note that said: 'Hey my name is Quentin Tarantino, and I want to talk to Dick Dale'," Dale said. "My bass player didn't know who he was so he threw the note away. But then Quentin found me in my dressing room. He said: ''Dick, I've been listening to your music, man, since I was a kid. It's so powerful. Your song 'Misirlou' is a masterpiece. I do movies differently. Most people make a movie first and then they watch it and then they put the music to it. I don't do it that way. I get a song and listen to it over and over until I get that energy of that song stuck in my brain. I want to create a masterpiece of a movie that compliments the masterpiece of 'Misirlou'."

"Pulp Fiction" was the result.

Advance passes to see Dale live can be purchased for $20 at the Ferndale Music Co., 580 Main St. #2; PALCO Pharmacy in Scotia; The Works in Eureka; The Burl Gallery in Rio Dell and at Missing Link Records in Arcata. Auburn surf-rock quartet The Pyronauts will also perform. Dale said he plans to sign autographs after the show.